Tag Archives: gallery

We’re cutting photos up today and exploring new ways to display more of your favorites! Photo grids are very popular in the digital photo market, so we put our paper loving spin on things to show you just how easy it is to make them yourself and what some of the advantages are of creating them out of a variety of components rather than one flat (boring! 🙂 ) printed sheet.

Before we get into the meaty artwork details, let’s talk page design. If you’re like us and prefer things in a 12″ x 12″ format, you’re going to want to use 16 2-inch squares arranged in a 4 x 4 grid or nine 3″ squares arranged in a 3 x 3 grid. You could also fit four 4″ or four 5″ squares, it really depends how many photos you’re hoping to display. Keep in mind, the more squares you choose to use in your project the trickier it will be to keep them all perfectly lined up. It isn’t impossible, we’ll show you how to make it work, and the results are worth it!

Both of our examples today are arranged in a 4 x 4 grid using 2″ squares.

To build the grid, you will want to use a T-square or draw some light pencil marks to follow with a ruler. We left 1¾” margins on all sides and separated our squares by ¼”. Once you have your guide marks on your base page, start by attaching the top left corner square first. Placement of this first square is crucial because the other squares will build off it. Make sure it is straight and exactly where you want it to be. (In the provided examples, the first square is 1¾” from the top and right side.) After your first square is on, attach the rest of the top row and first column. After that, keep attaching all of your squares until your grid is complete.

Once you get the gist of how to assemble the grid itself, you can get creative with its pieces.

For starters, not all of your squares have to be individual photos. Our first example is a collage of photos, patterned papers, and journaling.

One of our photos was even cropped and cut to fit into two squares instead of one. You have so many options available to you displaying your memories this way.

The biggest perk to creating your own grid over printing it is the dimension that is at your disposal. You can use embellishments to add colors, height, and even textures.

The second approach we took for a grid display is the large image created by the parts. In other words, we cut up a big picture into small squares and attached them in a tile-like way.

What’s especially fun about this particular example is that it looks like you’re inside a cabin looking out a window. You can recreate this same look, maybe not a cabin if that’s not your vibe, by following the same steps to assemble the grid. The only difference is that you start out with a large square photo, in our case an 8″ x 8″, and cut it in to 16 2-inch squares.

Display your memories in style, and more of them, using a photo grid as your guide!

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Gallery walls are a great way to infuse a space with colors and patterns. Not only are they a more affordable way to decorate large walls, but they give us the opportunity to showcase multiple pieces of art in one place and to express who we are and what we love!

If you’ve never created a gallery wall before or if you’re looking for ways to update your current gallery walls, here are some tips to help you create a meaningful, cohesive gallery:

Decide if you want your gallery to be just pictures and photos or if you want to include dimensional pieces, like wooden shapes, wreaths, etc.

Choose a favorite photo or piece of artwork as your starting piece, and then add to your wall by finding pieces that coordinate with your first item.

Another way to start is to choose one main color to anchor all the pieces in your gallery, and then create a color scheme around this main color.

Rather than searching for the perfect picture frames to coordinate with your artwork, try adding paper to plain picture frames. It’s an easy way to make everything match!

Hang your picture frames both horizontally and vertically for variety.

Add personal touches to your gallery, like a monogram, scrapbook page, or favorite family quote.

Use a variety of shapes and dimensions, as well as picture frame sizes, to create a well-balanced look.

Lay out your gallery on the floor before hanging it on the wall. You’ll easily be able to move around pieces until you get the look you want, and then you can take a photo to reference when hanging the gallery up on the wall. Want to be even more precise? Trace the pieces of your gallery on scrap paper, cut them out, and hang them on the wall to see how they look before attaching the actual pieces.

And maybe most of all, make sure you have fun! Gallery walls are a great way to get in touch with your creative side. Now go get crafty! 🙂

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Jeanette Lynton

Meet Jeanette Lynton—wife, mother, artist, and Founder & CEO of one of the world’s leading companies in the papercrafting industry. This blog is dedicated to all who share her love of creativity. Visit often, share your stories, and become family!

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